Tarnished Legacy (Part 3)
by Sparkflight206
Summary: 7 years ago Zeref left 4 Dragon Slayers, a demigod and a regular human on Insula Midnight, the Island of Nightmares. But when they are found by their old comrades, it's too late, and the world they knew is gone. Gone, but not forgotten. The dragons left behind a tattered, bloody history, it is their duty to amend it. Demons, Dragons, Gods. This is what it's like when they collide.


"Can you see anything?"

"Nothing so far." Hinata replied, Byakugan active. She stood at the prow of the boat, peering into the vast ocean where Tenrou Island used to be. Blue Pegasus' Christina flew above, scanning the area. From behind her, Jet spoke sorrowfully.

"It's no use, that dragon blew up Tenrou. They're dead."

Noting her comrade's statement, she replied with calm. "Blue Pegasus was genuine when they said they found something out here, I saw it. The only reason they didn't find it before is because an unknown type of Dragon Slayer Magic caused an Ethernano fallout with a single Roar. There was too much dense magic here to survive until now, it's been diluted over the years."

Her all-seeing eyes caught a person, a small girl standing on the water, and her white Fairy Tail emblem pulsed with magic, creating a throbbing on her left shoulder blade where it was located. She noticed the girl's body was astral, like a spirit. There was also a massive concentration of Ethernano beneath the sea, spherical in shape. The girl raised her arms and the massive spherical magic mass rose to the surface.

A golden sphere with the Fairy Tail symbol broke the surface. Not even waiting for the waves to calm, Hinata leapt overboard, speeding across the sea towards the sphere, within which she sensed familiar presences. The seawater finished draining off it and the the sphere evaporated, revealing Tenrou Island, which splashed back into the water. She kicked off the surface beneath her feet, soaring over the tall waves from the shockwave and landing on the shore. The others were steering the ship to shore as she ran up the beach. Reaching a rocky outcrop just beyond the sand, she saw them.

Erza was half buried in the sand, face down. Cana and Lucy was collapsed against the trees, the Master was lying on his side, Laxus and the Thunder Legion were in a pile, Fuu, Happy and Panther Lily were on their backs, Gildarts was dead asleep on a rock, the Strausses were together in a heap, and Sasuke was curled up in a ball.

Rushing over, she wrapped her arms around Sasuke's shoulders, shaking him to wake him from his slumber. Slowly his eyes opened, and they were full of pain. She knew that look, he'd had it when he'd realised just how damaged he was 9 years ago, and felt the full force of the guilt he harboured from killing. It was the look of the tortured soul he was, having seen his entire family cut down before his eyes by his own brother.

"What happened here?"

His answer was what she dreaded. "I killed again, three dragons appeared, one to kill us, one to defend us and one that was after Naruto. He and Natsu couldn't beat it, so Naruto used Gate of Hell to take the third one down to Hell with him."

"Which dragons?" She inquired worriedly.

"A Sage Dragon tried to kill us, the Evil Dragon fought against it, and the first Hellfire Dragon rose from Hell to take Naruto's soul."

His Sharingan activated, and she suddenly saw the creature known as the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse.

" _ **Move Gyddred, I must hunt Irene.**_ " _The bloodthirsty look in the Evil Dragon's eyes was unmistakeable. The White, the Lightning Dragon King did not move, merely unfolded his second pair of wings._

" _ **Surrender Acnologia, your Chaos Dragon Slayer Magic is not enough to deter me, nor is your Evil Dragon Slayer Magic. A dragon with two powers you may be, but even you cannot slay me, the Lightning Dragon King. If you surrender here, I will plead the other Kings to show mercy, and I know Aeolus holds you in high regard for saving his ward.**_ "

 _Acnologia tried again. "_ _ **Move. I cannot allow Irene to live and I do not desire a battle with you.**_ "

" _ **I cannot move out of your path. You must go before the Elemental Council and face the charges of crimes you have been accused of.**_ "

 _He'd wasted enough time._

" _ **Ryūō no Hōkō!**_ "

 _The pale blue beam that was the Dragon King's Roar bore right through the larger dragon that had white scales that gleamed like lightning. Gyddred fell from the sky, dead, destroyed utterly and slain by the power bequeathed to Acnologia by Saphira the Evil One, the Evil Dragon before him, through the Energy Symbiote. As he fell, the Evil Dragon looked down on his falling form. "_ _ **Yaghfiru lia, li annani 'akhtar.**_ "

 _His prayer in Ancient went unheard by the dead Elemental Dragon King. The Evil Dragon said one last thing before he ascended to hunt his Bonded._

" _ **No creature that exists in this world can hope to stop me now. The Wings of Despair are coming for all, and they will face the Reaper of the Dragons and be judged. My wings are black as night, and I will hunt all who are**_ _**'aeda' insaniat. The Evil Dragon is indomitable.**_ "

"What was that?" The Hyūga gasped, releasing the breath she didn't know she'd been holding while seeing the vision she just had. Sasuke's eyes faded back to broken black.

"The beginning of the Unspeakable Shadow. Gyddred the White was the first King that thing slew, and he was far from the last. Only two survived that thing, Igneel and the Sky Dragon King, Aeolus, who was killed by the Sage Dragon that attacked us. Mareld, the Unity Dragon, pulled that memory from Gyddred's corpse and implanted it into my head the day I met her, it's been suppressed all this time."

Pulling him up, she came to a realisation. "None of us who are still alive know Ancient. We have no idea what it said."

With a small groan, Erza forced herself up out of the beach, pulling her battered form from the sand and rolling onto her side. Ignoring the pain in her ribs, she looked around, taking in her surroundings. The now older members of Fairy Tail were retrieving the injured and unconscious time-frozen ones, helping them to their feet.

"Come on." She looked up to see Bisca above her, holding her hand out. "Let's get you guys home."

She helped the redhead to her feet, but she was already looking somewhere else. Erza was looking at the spot at which the six others had vanished from, surrounded by a black sphere that stole them away. "Not all of us are here."

"What's that?" The gun using woman inquired. The swordswoman turned to look at her.

"Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Gray, Alicya and Tsukiko were taken before the first dragon's attack hit. They aren't on the island, they're somewhere else."

"Fear not my honey, we will find them." Ichiya, having just recovered from face planting into the sand, assured her. "If it was a spell, Christina can identify it."

Turning to the floating ship, he called up to his comrades. "Men! There has been a spell cast that stole away some of our friends before they were put into time freeze, identify it! And lower the ladder!"

A long rope ladder with wooden bars was thrown down and the Trimens got to it with a distinguished "Yes maestro!"

One by one, the Fairy Tail members that were frozen in time were brought on board the ship that belonged to their guild. Erza and Makarov, however, went aboard Christina via the ladder, although it took them longer than Ichiya to scale it. By the time they got up, Hibiki had made some headway in identifying the magic that stole the 6.

"It appears to be a dimension shifting magic." He observed. The computer generated by his magic gave out a loud 'ping'. "Aha, here we go! Oh God."

"What is it?" Makarov asked.

"This magic… it's Limbo Magic, a branch of the Black Arts. But that's not even the worst part of it. It has only one recorded user."

Erza beat the Master to it. "Who?"

Hibiki looked her in the eye.

"Zeref."

"Why would Zeref take those 6? It makes no sense, they aren't a threat to him." The redhead fumed. "They're just…"

"Slayers."

Makarov's single word sentence stopped them all dead in confusion. Everyone, Trimens, Ichiya and Erza, looked to him to explain what he meant by saying that they were just 'Slayers'. And so he did.

"With the exception of Gray, all of them are Slayers. Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy and Tsukiko are Dragon Slayers. There are wonderful and horrific tales of what dragons are capable of, for instance the Dragon Civil War. In that war, dragons tore each other apart with only the minority concerned for other life. Believe it or not, Kushina told me that most dragons wanted to devour humans, and only the purest of souls among them cared for life other than that of their own race.

"Dragon Slayers were created amidst the conflict, a plot by the most human loving of the dragons, the Elemental Council, and it is said that the first 4 possessed the powers of the Divine Dragons. Four different supreme bodies, Energy, Void, Soul and Life, each controlled by a different Dragon Slayer. But even they did terrible things, they eventually turned on each other. Even those who weren't 'Divine' were glorious and devastating in their power, and were also prone to infighting. That was among a literal **army** of Dragon Slayers.

"However, Alicya is even rarer. True God Slayers aren't fully human to begin with, they're born half human, half god. A god or goddess has a child, and can train them for 8 years after they turn 8, until their 16th birthday. 8 years of being taught by a literal god, with their powers flowing through their veins. They surpass even all the Dragon Slayers with their true potential unlocked."

"That explains why Zeref would want them." Hibiki mused. "But why take them now? Why not 14 years ago for the Dragon Slayers, when their dragons disappeared and they would have been young and helpless?"

"The Flames." Erza realised.

"What?"

"Naruto and Naruko were strong, even when they first came to Fairy Tail. He could burn down an entire city at half power and she could freeze one with the same ease. That power only grew with time, Naruko unlocking her Cold Dragon Queen powers for instance. From the start, they were protecting the others, they killed people to do that. Even after Naruko died, Naruto was just as powerful as ever, in fact his loss made him stronger when he awakened the Void. Zeref might have been waiting until he was gone too, so he could have orchestrated the dragon battle that happened."

"You may be right Erza, at least about him waiting for them to be gone. But I find it hard to believe he could influence those dragons." Makarov told her as he thought about it. "The one called Irene seemed completely insane, and the one called Acnologia doesn't appear to answer to anyone. The Hellfire Dragon King would have been completely out of his control."

"Boss, we got a match!" Eve called out.

Ichiya shot over to his station and looked at the map the blonde was operating with. "Hmmm, the signature is faint, but it is definitely the same. Hibiki, plot a course!"

"Where to sir?"

"Insula Midnight."

[TL]

Christina touched down on the black shore, and Erza, now in full armour, led the others into the darkness with a flaming torch in her left hand and a sword in her right. There was a black mist over the entire island, and it was freezing.

" _Erza…_ "

A wraith-like version of Jellal of darkened colour, made of the dark mist, drifted past her. On his face was only hatred. " _You left me to die._ "

He dissipated, and another figure appeared.

" _I'm dead because of you._ " Wraith-Simon told her and vanished into the black mist. Mist ghosts of Sho, Millianna and Wally appeared.

" _How could you forget us?_ "

" _You're cruel._ "

" _We thought you cared for us!_ "

Then Rob appeared, embodied by the wraith mist. His eyes were hollow and his skin crack, like he was just before he was blown apart. There was anger, and also resentment on his old face. " _Why did I ever give my life for you to live?_ "

After a short pause, a 9 year old Tsukiko, bleeding from her back, was formed. The young girl's visage looked up at her with tearful eyes, but there was an unfathomable hate, hate for her, behind those innocent orbs.

" _You said you'd protect me, but you lied! You drove a knife into my back! You stole my legs! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!_ "

Black mist versions of Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Alicya and Wendy appeared behind her.

" _You're no sister of mine._ " Wraith-Wendy stated.

" _I wish you'd stayed in the Tower of Heaven._ " Wraith-Gray snapped.

" _Zeref was kinder when he damned us to this place._ " Wraith-Alicya, burned and ragged in her appearance, intoned with quiet rage.

" _Queen of the Fairies? What a joke. You're the Queen of the Deceivers if anything, making us believe in you then failing us, so spectacularly._ " Wraith-Gajeel hissed. Wraith-Natsu glared at her as he told her his piece darkly.

" _Too little, too late Erza. Too little, too late._ "

"Erza!"

Alzack's loud voice shook her from the trance, and the ghosts faded away. She looked up to see the others looking at her with concern. Her sword and the torch were on the ground. She picked them up and continued on, giving a forced smile and speaking as steadily as she could after that.

"I'm alright."

Jet gave her a questioning look. "You sure? You look spooked Erza. Like, someone just walked over your grave spooked."

"I'm alright Jet." She ground out. She put the torch forward and strode into the darkness.

"Okay, if you say so." Jet grumbled, unconvinced. They walked on, until they found something that none of them were expecting.

A dragon's corpse.

The dragon itself was blacker than even the darkness, in fact the dark mist seemed to be exuded from its body. It was clearly dead, and had been for a while, given it had gaping wounds. A massive hole was in its abdomen, jagged and so gruesomely shredded it made the weaker willed of the search party throw up.

Charred scales and burnt flesh were the smells that filled the air. Its wings were shredded, and seemed to have been pierced through many times, targeted even. Many sapphire fletched arrows were buried in chinks in the scale armour at key joints.

"Damn!" Droy wretched. "The hell is this thing?!"

Hinata recognised it, and horror filled her white eyes. "I know this dragon, Atlas is one of the four who banished it here."

Everyone looked at her.

"It has no name, but it is known as the Nightmare Dragon, the devourer of dreams and tormentor of souls. The Baku. Its presence alone brings to life the fears of those around it, and it has devoured hundreds of dragons. The black mist, the corrupted earth, these are the signs of its presence.

"This dragon is the Devil Dragon God, a fallen god who was cursed with the form of a demonic dragon. It took the 4 Divines to drive it back here, the darkness from which it rose, and imprison it here forever. Atlas had the Void at that time, and I don't know the other 3."

"The Devil Dragon God? Then how the crap did the others survived here?!" Jet gasped.

Makarov pulled one of the arrows from its body and examined it, looking up after. He knew the sapphire fletching and broadhead were Tsukiko's signature. They always had been. He told them it straight.

"They're the ones who killed it."

He held up the arrow to the torchlight, showing the fletching, then the arrowhead itself. "This is one of Tsukiko's arrows. Also, the wounds this Nightmare Dragon has are consistent with fire, ice, metal and wind spells. The hole in its stomach was Gajeel's Roar if I had to guess, the targeted wings were Gray or Alicya, maybe both, and Wendy, and the burns and charring are Natsu and Tsukiko."

A new wave of the black fear mist rolled over them, and each of them saw their fears brought to life. Makarov however wasn't fooled. His Light Magic blasted the fear apparitions away as he used it to cleanse everyone's minds of their fear.

"You are part of us, but you don't control us." He declared calmly.

Amber light radiated from Hinata's mouth and she unleashed her Amber Dragon's Roar on the dragon's corpse. She sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead as she sat down.

"Even though it's dead, this thing brings our fears to life. Now I understand why only the Divines could suppress it before."

Alzack agreed. "Yeah, no kidding."

A wraith-like voice echoed in the Erza's ears. It sounded like Tsukiko, but broken, terrified, without life.

" _You can try to fight it, but once the fear gets in your head… once it gets inside… there's no way out… no escape… no hope…_ "

The redhead spotted something then, a flash of snow white hair, floating in the wind. "Tsukiko?"

Ignoring the questioning remarks of the others, the redhead pursued the elusive hair. Just when she thought she'd lost it, it would reappear for a moment, just long enough for her to see it, then it would be gone. It was like a gust of wind, slipping away in a heartbeat.

The others were far behind her as she charged through the dead forest. She burst into a dead and lifeless clearing, and could find no sign of the Blue Flame Dragon Slayer.

Without a shred of warning, her armour disassembled, falling away as a fist collided with her lower back, causing her to cry out and arch her spine. A muscular arm locked around her neck, wrenching her down so she was bent over backwards. The other arm was holding her right at the shoulder, her head beneath the left shoulder of her attacker. A feral and growling voice resonated from a voice box that sounded like it hadn't been used in a long time.

"Twitch, and I will snap your neck!"

"Wha… who…" She gasped out.

"You have 5 seconds to tell me something I believe, or I will separate your head from your body! What are you doing here?!"

Summoning all the air in her starved lungs, Erza shouted hoarsely, "I'm with Fairy Tail!"

The hold around her neck released and her left arm was grabbed forcefully. The person whose face she couldn't see twisted her upper arm to get a good look at the emblem. Suddenly the mysterious person released her, and they croaked out a single, questioning word.

"Titania?"

The S Class Wizard looked up at the man who had choked her. His spiky long black hair had become even longer and wilder, now having bangs that framed his face. His attire consisted of his light coloured pants that were stained with blood, his gloves and a studded belt that held pants up. He had gained more scars in addition to the ones on his right forearm. Distinctly claw made scars ran all up his back, more across his right pectoral. There was a twisted looking circular scar on both sides of his left shoulder, like something had pierced it through.

"Gajeel…" With speed that defied her condition, Erza rose to her feet and hugged him tight. "You idiot! Don't scare me like that!"

"We couldn't be too careful." He muttered as he stood there without moving or hugging back.

She released him, and Natsu appeared, Alicya, Tsukiko, Wendy and Gray too. They were in a similar way to Gajeel, but Wendy was the worst. The dark blue haired girl was staggering, a bandage wrapped around her left thigh with a large patch of blood soaking it.

Her dark blue hair had grown down to her knees, and the strands that usually framed her face had been braided around to the back where they met, keeping her long tresses behind her shoulders. She'd grown taller, now standing at Natsu's chin. All she wore was a dark, ragged skirt that went a third of the way down her thigh and bandages wrapped around her upper chest that was barely bigger than 7 years ago, much like how Erza did with her Clear Heart Clothing. **(AN: She looks how Reedus drew her as he pictured her 7 years older when she came back from Tenrou in the anime)**

The less-than-conservative attire exposed one of her two scars, which weren't as prominent as Natsu's but still noticeable. She had a thin blemish very slightly diagonally across her lower back, 3 and half inches long, a quarter of one wide, and an even thinner one, an inch long, under her hair, mirroring her spine as it stretched an inch from her hairline. Two close calls she'd rather forget.

"Hi Erza, sorry about that."

The swordswoman smiled and hugged Wendy too, resting her chin on the grown up girl's head. "Don't be." Stepping back, she got a proper look at the six. It was then she noticed their scars and ragged looks. And, something else.

Their Fairy Tail emblems were gone.

"What happened to you guys?"

"Hell." Natsu stated, pained by the question. "7 years of Hell."

He too had changed drastically in appearance. He had a physique of perfect muscle, slightly tanned skin, long and spiky salmon pink hair and dark eyes with slit pupils. He had a scar on the right side of his neck, a cross-shaped one on the left side of his abdomen, a set of 3 jagged lines across his left bicep, made by what seemed to be the claws of an animal, and one more, that one being a jagged blemish on his right cheek. On his right forearm was a draconic tattoo of dark red.

He wore no top, nor footwear of any kind. The only clothing he had was a pair of torn and ragged pants, the colour of which was unidentifiable, held up by his white scarf of dragon scales tied around his waist.

"We weren't caught in that timesphere. We were here." The Ice Make Wizard added, clearly not willing to say any more.

Gray looked simply older, not to the point of the others who found Erza, but more mature. His entire clothing consisted of a pair of pants torn and shredded so they ended just past his knees, and had rips in all over. In addition to the scar on his abdomen from his Ice Blade: 7 Slice Dance: Blood Version and the one on his forehead, he had a jagged one vertically on his stomach on the left side, three diagonal lines across his right shin, nasty scars all over his left forearm and three claw line scars from his right shoulder to his left hip across his back. His hair was long, like Natsu's but tamer.

The 16 year old Tsukiko looked at her in a way that did not match the 9 year old she knew at all. "Trust me, you don't wanna know."

Tsukiko's change was the most shocking. She was **standing** , strongly at that, as if there wasn't an iota of weakness in her legs. Her snow white hair had grown long again, and was tied in a single French braid that rested over her spine. Her sapphire eyes had a childish yet mature look in them. All she wore was a ragged and torn sleeveless dress that reached mid-thigh and was, like Natsu's pants, of an unrecognisable colour. She didn't have any scars, but she did have a bleeding cut on her left cheek and another one, larger, across her upper back.

Alicya was standing close to Gray. Her hair had grown past the length it had been before Zancrow had burned her, the burnt ends still visible. The burns were long gone, having healed years ago, but they had left scars which had almost faded. Her forehead, cheek, arm and legs had blemish scars where the burns had been, and her burnt apart clothes had been discarded. Now she was wearing a ragged white skirt and half shredded light blue t-shirt, both of which had bloodstains on.

With a snap of his fingers, Gajeel made Erza's armour jump up off the ground and reassemble on her body. Although she didn't make a sound or face, the Sky Dragon Slayer mentally hissed with the pain of her injured leg.

As Wendy's internal wince happened, Natsu wrapped his arms around her and cuddled her close. His left arm slipped under her legs and he lifted her bridal style, letting her wrap her arms around his neck and curl up to his bare chest. She didn't make a sound of pain, but he knew it was agonising for her still.

At that moment, the others came bumbling into the clearing and froze at the sight of them. Natsu chose to ignore them and proceeded to walk right past them to the boat they came on, Gray and Alicya acting like watch dogs, growling at anyone who came too near. Gajeel followed Tsukiko on board in a way that could be described as stalking due to the small gap between the pair. The motion sickness of the Dragon Slayers didn't help when they boarded the boat.

[TL]

Atsuko Cole stood up as the Twilight Ogre members stood in the doorway of the small, remote guild hall, leering and smirking at the remaining Fairy Tail members. The ground began to shudder a little with each step she took, a phantom image of a rocky skinned dragon appearing behind her.

"Your master can go **screw** **himself** for all I care you numb nuts! You're not getting any money from us, or anything else for that matter you bloody assclowns! Now you better turn the hell around and walk your punk asses out of our building before I show you the fury of the Earth Dragon, Baragon the Earthshaker!"

"Atsuko…" Hanabi said warningly.

"No!" The brunette snapped at her adoptive sister. "I've had enough of these parasites having their way here!"

She turned to the wizards from Twilight Ogre and the ground shook furiously as she took an _Alttinin Skay_ stance and snarled at them.

"You want some so bad?! You want us to roll over and do whatever you want, whenever you want?! Well you won't get that from me so COME AND GET SOME YOU COWARDS!"

The leader, Thibault, took his mace from his back and swung it down at her. Easily, she sidestepped it and smashed an Earth Dragon Quake Fist hard into his face, sending him flying fast into a wall. His second who was a particularly scrawny man, thrust forth his hand and an Iron Make magic circle opened. Her forest green eyes flashed dangerously and Atsuko savagely kicked the side of his knee in, shattering the joint with an Earth Dragon Seismic Stomp. In a whirlwind motion, she span and drove her elbow into his nose, breaking it. For good measure, she grabbed his spell casting arm and brought it smashing down on her knee, brutally shattering his elbow. Kicking him over onto the floor, she turned to the next one.

Her right hand grabbed his shirt and she pulled hard, throwing him headfirst into the ground. Pouncing on him, she stood on his back and wrenched his arms hard, breaking them. On the next one, she performed a spinning jump kick as she charged him, striking him in the chest hard with her foot, augmenting her kick with an Earth Dragon Shatter Talon, breaking quite a few of his ribs, knocking the wind out of him and him out of the fight.

Before she could brutalise the others, someone else did it for her, using _Alttinin Skay_ to boot.

The first of the remaining 3 went down to a broken jaw and stomped-on hand, the bones within his appendage crushed. Next, the hammer bearing one was given a bruised spleen and having his head smashed into the ground. The last's left leg was dislocated at the hip with a single kick and was seized by his front and headbutted in the face. He dropped like a stone after that.

The newcomer coldly said, "Stay down punks."

It was Gajeel!

Everyone just stood there in shock. One could have heard a pin drop if it happened at that moment. Then they exploded with happiness, seeing the other 5 with him. As they went mental, Gray looked at the black haired Iron Dragon Slayer and reprimanded him half-heartedly as he subconsciously rubbed the scars on his left forearm.

"Did you have to be so brutal?"

"I actually toned it down, just look at what Atsuko did with the same style." He replied with a shameless smirk. "I only broke one guy's jaw and some hand bones, that's it. It looks worse than it is Ice Pick."

"7 years, and you're gonna start calling me that again?"

"To me, you guys are always gonna be Alicya, Gray, Wendy, Natsu and Tsukiko, but to these clowns, it's Frost Girl, Ice Pick, Little Girl, Salamander and Kid."

Hinata went over to her sister immediately to tell her. The brunette looked up. "Just say it 'Sis. What happened to him?"

"Naruto used Gate of Hell." She told the younger woman, sitting down next to her and taking her smaller hand with both of her own. "I'm sorry it was worse than we thought, but I know you don't want me to lie just to spare your feelings."

Hanabi gave a weak but genuine smile.

"Naruto always was too selfless. He put everyone else before himself, went out of his way to do so. I'm only upset because he's not at peace, he's in Hell's Heart suffering. But… I'll never be able to let go of _her_ … my baby… Why did that Hellfire Dragon have to take my baby away from me the night he died?"

The elder Hyūga moved around and held her younger sister close. The widowed mother broke down and cried into her chest, just like she had the day her Mark of Eternity turned black and the bond it had went dead. The day her 13 month old daughter was stolen from her.

"Shhhh. I know it hurts and I know I'll never understand how much, but here's the thing 'Nabi. Everything happens for a reason, right or wrong." Hinata spoke quietly so only her sister would hear.

"l don't know why you lost them both that night but I do know they would want you not to miss them, but to cherish them."

Atsuko was was wide-eyed with disbelief at their return. The first opportunity she got, she threw herself at Wendy and tried to pick her up out of Natsu's arms, and hug the 19 year old tight. "Wendy!"

Natsu turned feral in a heartbeat, growling at the Earth Dragon Slayer and holding the bluenette close to his chest. Gajeel's arm immediately turned into his wicked looking Karma Sword and before he knew what was happening he was in a combat stance. Silver ice mist emanated from Alicya's hands and purplish blue ice mist from Gray's. As they did, Wendy got a look at her would-be hugging assaulter.

"Atsuko?"

"You know it!" The Earth Dragon Slayer confirmed.

"You really grew up." Wendy smiled in surprise.

"I'm 17 now, and I learned a lot of things while you guys were gone."

"Like?"

" _Alttinin Skay_ , how to tolerate people, activating my Earth Drive, waking up in the morning, oh and that I'm bisexual." Atsuko listed. Her fellow First Generation Dragon Slayer nodded, quickly processing the information.

"Well I guess you have more choice in your relationships." Wendy shrugged, fine with her adoptive little sister's sexuality.

"True. I still wish I could activate Dragon Force though."

"Dragon Force… I used to think that it was the ultimate power." Gajeel's red eyes turned in their sockets to look at the Earth Dragon's daughter.

"I spent so long trying to achieve the Dragon Force, 9 years I pushed myself to the point of collapse to get there. When I finally got it, it was underwhelming to say the least. It merely felt like an step beyond Drive, for me it wasn't enough. For all that work, to get so little was unacceptable to me. I pushed myself even further, bled myself more, tore my muscles more, cracked my bones, broke them even. Even then, I got nowhere. Only when I realised what I should be fighting for, the truth in my heart, did I finally feel a sense of achievement. I still have the desire for more, but for a different reason now.

"In short, the Dragon Force is next to useless if you don't know the truth of your heart. That is the real power of a Dragon Slayer, the true source of our power."

With that, Metalicana's son walked away.

As he stalked towards the door, the other 5 followed him without a word, immediately breaking off from whatever they were doing to mirror his path. Erza moved to stop Gray as he walked past. Her hand closed around his arm. He stopped.

"Let go."

Her brown eyes locked with his black ones in a challenge, daring him to try and make her. He closed his eyelids with a sigh, and forced her to relinquish him.

In a single moment of sheer strength, he hurled her flying into the wall simply by extending his arm. He continued walking away and exited the door as the redhead pushed herself to her feet. She was stunned by his brute strength, it surpassed hers by quite a margin. She moved to go after him, only to find her own arm caught.

She turned around to see the Master being the one who'd stopped her. He shook his head as he looked at her solemnly.

"Let them go Erza. They've had only each other for the past 7 years, 7 years of living their nightmares if I understand it correctly. Neither you nor I can imagine the horror they endured there. I saw it in their eyes." He advised her.

She stopped trying to follow Gray and turned to face Makarov fully. "What do you mean, you saw it? Master?"

"There's that same look in their eyes that I've seen in so many others. Tsukiko has had that look before, when she lost her legs. I saw it then in her eyes, and I can see it now. They're still in that place, even though they have returned here they are still in a world they do not know. They aren't the people you knew, they've changed dear child.

"Gajeel has an anger about him, but also a regret. Natsu seems to no longer be a child, he seems like a young man who has seen many tragedies in his lifetime. Wendy comes across as more sure of her own identity, but also more mature. Gray seems to exclusively trust the other 5, he is skeptical and cautious of the world that he no longer knows. Alicya appears to have desire to shield herself from others even more. Tsukiko, for all appearances, has ceased to be naïve and clingy, she's learnt to let go. In fact, she's become much like her sister, calm, disciplined, but she is more balanced than Naruko."

As Erza went about her business again, the short old man remembered the day he'd seen the youngest of the 3 Flame siblings look so broken, so lost.

Flashback

 _He mounted the stairs, and once he reached the top, went along to the room he had been told the 9 year old was in. He knocked._

 _Naruto emerged, looking very much tired. "Tsukiko, she's… not in the best of ways. She's not talking to anyone except me and Mother. You can try, but she doesn't seem to register anyone but us lately."_

 _Makarov nodded and entered the room._

 _Closing the door after himself, he identified the girl by her blonde hair that was intermingled by streaks of white. Her brother had been correct about her condition. She looked sickly, her skin was pale and her sapphire eyes were bloodshot. But that wasn't the worst of it. Tears were rolling down her cheeks constantly, and the place appeared to be a mess._

 _There was a wheelchair in the corner of the room, tipped on its side. It look to have been hurled._

 _Softly, he called out to her. "Hello Tsukiko."_

 _Her sapphire eyes dragged over to him and he clearly saw the bloodshot in them. Her voice was small, quaking as it barely carried across the distance between them._

" _Go away."_

" _I cannot leave one of my children to suffer on their own." He replied, making his way across the room to her._

" _You're not my father! Atlas is! Or… was…"_

 _The way she trailed off was painful._

 _He finally managed to cross the chaotic room and sat down next to the recently made paraplegic girl._

" _You've experienced something terrible, and it scares you with how it has changed you, and you're hiding from it." He told her, resting his hand on her small shoulder. "But change happen, tragedy happens. I believe what's truly important at this point in your life is what you choose to do."_

 _Tsukiko looked up at him again with her bloodshot eyes._

" _Will you choose to take what's happened to you, and move on, or let the pain wash over you and be stuck in the past?_

" _Sooner or later, we all go through a crucible. I'm guessing yours is your paralysis. Most believe there are two types of people who go into a crucible. The ones who become stronger from the experience and survive it, and the ones who die. But there's a third type. The ones who learn to love the fire, and choose to stay in their crucible because it's easier to embrace the pain when it's all you know anymore. Which are you child?"_

" _I don't know." She admitted after a moment._

" _I think we are all capable of moving forwards." He told her. "There is always hope, so long as you live there is reason to hope. Tsukiko, we need you to 'hope' again."_

Flashback End

He sighed and rested his head in his hands. The old Master was very tired. ' _It seems you found the power to 'hope' again, and now you have cemented it through 7 years of nightmares that have taken you to the brink of sanity. I can only have faith that your hope will hold when you find out what your family has become in your absence._ '

[TL]

The 6 Slayers, meanwhile, had gone to acquire new clothing due to the degenerate state of their previous garments. Luckily Gray had always been a financially smart person, and advised the others with the same intelligence, to put his money in the bank. Thus, all 6 of them had savings with interest over 7 years to use. The shopping trip had been short.

Natsu now wore a black long-sleeved jacket, left open, untucked, and no undershirt with light-colored trimming and the sleeves rolled up to his wrists, black baggy pants held by a leather brown belt with a silver buckle around his waist, and a pair of dark brown, high-calf boots. There were several yellow, skull-like patterns on the jacket and pants. His trademark scarf was around his neck.

Wendy had changed into a deep red dress, quite reminiscent of her green scale pattern one, with a white strap around her neck, a white line running an inch from the hem that reached halfway down her thighs and silver arm bands on her biceps. Her hair was free, hanging down just past her rear, given Lucy had Cancer cut their hair back to how it was 7 years ago at their requests. A pair of sandals in the style of her ankles tied ones had been found and she now wore them. Hinata had healed her leg after the boat docked in Hargeon.

Gajeel had changed into a brown leather sleeveless tunic with a metal shoulder guard on the right, light pants that were secured by a studded belt and tucked into dark brown boots with a similar studded ring around the top. His gloves remained, although he'd had them repaired, and he now wore a white bandanna around his forehead. His hair was still wild and unchanged, given he liked it so, but it had been cut slightly shorter.

Gray had cut his hair to its length before the 7 years and the Devil Slayer had also changed into a new attire. It consisted of a pair of dark grey combat pants tucked into shin tall black boots and held up by a belt, a purple undershirt that clung to his torso, with the sleeves being separate and secured by leather straps with a buckle over his upper chest.

Alicya had discarded her half shredded attire for a new one, made up of a short black skirt with a blue layer underneath, the same colour as her light blue hair, black thigh high socks, a sleeveless white blouse, a light blue tie, clinging black arm warmers that partially covered the backs of her hands and went halfway up her upper arms and a pair of black riptape shoes with a light blue sole. Her hair had been put back up into their former pigtail by black hair ties.

Tsukiko had traded her colourless dress for a dark grey vest top with an off-shoulder tee of a black colour over it, her left shoulder exposed. Black shorts and thigh high socks, as well as a pair of dark grey combat boots completed her new outfit. Her hair had been cut back to shoulder length but not as a bob like she'd previously had it.

 **(AN: Natsu is wearing his Tartaros outfit that he had while fighting Mard Geer, Wendy is wearing the one she had in Reedus' drawing I mentioned earlier, Gajeel is wearing the outfit he had on when he and Natsu fought Sting and Rogue into the two on two battles in the GMG, Gray is wearing the one he was when they landed on Cube, all four are from the anime, Alicya is basically Hatsune Miku as she appears for her profile picture on the Vocaloid Wiki)**

Now standing on the hill that overlooked Magnolia, the 6 were grouped and adjusting to the visual differences of the place. It hadn't changed much, but enough that they were disoriented beyond what 7 years of breathing fear mist had done to them.

"We may not know where you are, but we're coming for you." Gajeel promised. "Metalicana, Igneel, Grandeeney. We won't give up until we find you."

Wendy took her pink haired boyfriend's right hand with her smaller, slender one. Natsu made a different vow to his brother, grasping his right forearm that was bandaged from the wrist up beneath his jacket. Beneath it was the dark red Heir tattoo that signified his status as the Fire Dragon Prince.

"Dragons have left a tarnished legacy behind, it's our duty to amend it."


End file.
